Breaking news

Spurtle received the following email on 30 August, from a named individual with strong local connections. For a good reason known to us, they prefer to remain anonymous.

Stockbridge Pipe Band has returned triumphant from the last major competition of the season, having won the European and Cowal Championships to be crowned Grade 3B 2013 Champion of Champions, writes Pipe Major Euan Whitmore.

The band was formed in 1994, and in 2008 was crowned Grade 4B Champion of Champions after winning four of the five Championships including the coveted World Title.

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Spurtle ‘s had many pokes at the state of Edinburgh’s bins and birds over the years – most recently on Monday (Breaking news, 2.9.13) and in August’s printed edition (Issue 221).

Work has proceeded faster than expected, and York Place will now reopen to all traffic at 10.30am on Friday, weather permitting.

The news came from Alasdair Sim, Edinburgh Trams’ Interface Manager, at last night’s meeting of the New Town & Broughton Community Council.

Edinburgh streets are getting cleaner, with a reduction in dog mess and fewer incidences of graffiti.

The weather finally feels like it's beginning to turn, so in an attempt to cling on to the last flavours of summer for just a little bit longer here's a recipe that straddles the outgoing and incoming seasons with the last of this year's homegrown blueberries.
 

Spurtle volunteers, their friends and informants were busy in and around Broughton over the weekend.

First of their photos to arrive was this detail of a ground-floor flat in Bridge Place, Stockbridge.

Issue 222 is written, printed, and about to skip gracefully across Broughton like a couple of South African bishops dressed in ballet skirts.

A signed letter from Charlotte Brontë to a Scottish pharmacist will be auctioned in Broughton Place next week, and has interesting connections to this area's past.